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- Manyoshu
Moda mo aramu toki mo nakanamu higurashi no mono omou toki ni nakitsutsu motona
I wish you would sing at times when I am at ease—but you, evening cicada, keep singing aimlessly just when I am lost in brooding.
Omou ko ga koromo suramu ni nioi koso shima no harihara aki tatazu tomo
So that the girl I love can rub-dye her robe, glow with color, O alder groves of Shima, even though autumn has not yet come.
Kaze ni chiru hanatachibana o sode ni ukete kimi ga miato to shinoitsuru ka mo
Catching on my sleeve the tachibana blossoms scattered by the wind, I cherished them as traces you had left behind.
Kaguwashiki hanatachibana o tama ni nuki okuramu imo wa mitsurete mo aru ka
I will thread the fragrant tachibana blossoms like beads to send to my beloved—but has she grown thin and worn?
Hototogisu kinaki toyomosu tachibana no hana chiru niwa o mimu hito ya tare
The hototogisu comes and fills the air with song, and the tachibana blossoms scatter in the garden—who will there be to see it?
Waga yado no hanatachibana wa chirinikeri kuyashiki toki ni aeru kimi ka mo
The tachibana blossoms at my home have already fallen. What a regrettable time for you to come to meet me!
Miwataseba mukai no nobe no nadeshiko no chiramaku oshi mo ame na furi so ne
When I look out, the wild pinks in the meadow across from me—how sad if they should scatter! O rain, please do not fall.
Amama akete kunimi mo semu o furusato no hanatachibana wa chirinikemu ka mo
I mean to go and view the land when the rain clears—but have the tachibana blossoms of my old home already fallen?
Nobe mireba nadeshiko no hana sakinikeri waga matsu aki wa chikazukurashi mo
When I look over the fields, the wild pinks have bloomed. The autumn I have been waiting for seems to be drawing near.
Wagimoko ni ōchi no hana wa chirisugizu ima sakeru goto arikosenu ka mo
O ōchi blossoms, whose name speaks of meeting my beloved—do not scatter and fade, but stay just as you bloom now.
Kasugano no fuji wa chirinite nani o ka mo mikari no hito no orite kazasamu
The wisteria of Kasuga Plain has already fallen—what will the people on the royal hunt break off to wear in their hair?
Toki narazu tama o zo nukeru unohana no satsuki o mataba hisashiku arubemi
Out of season, I have strung them as beads already—for if I waited for the Fifth Month, when the deutzia blooms, it would be far too long.
Unohana no sakichiru oka yu hototogisu nakite sawataru kimi wa kikitsu ya
Across the hill where the deutzia blossoms bloom and scatter, the hototogisu passes, singing—did you hear it?
Kikitsu ya to kimi ga towaseru hototogisu shinononi nurete koyu nakiwataru
The hototogisu you asked me about, "Did you hear it?"—drenched through, it came singing this way as it crossed over.
Tachibana no hana chiru sato ni kayoinaba yamahototogisu toyomosamu ka mo
If I should go visiting the village where the tachibana blossoms fall, would the mountain hototogisu set up a clamor?
Haru sareba sugaru nasu no no hototogisu hotohoto imo ni awazu kinikeri
Like the hototogisu of the fields where the wasps swarm when spring comes, hoto-hoto, I very nearly came back without meeting my beloved.